If It Isn't Purposeless, It Isn't Play

"Octograbbers" was a game that the children played for months on end. It involved possessing two shovels, one for each hand, then using them like pincers to dig, pick things up, and occasionally, in the spirit of fun, menace one another. 

We'll never know who invented the game of "octograbbers," but we can be pretty certain that it didn't emerge from Darwinian evolution. Or rather, not directly. It's not one of those things like walking or talking for which most human's are born with the biological programming. Octograbbers was what could be called a cultural phenomenon, one that was conceived by children at play. It then spread from child to child to the point that any newcomer, within a few hours of involvement with us, would be fully versed.

Everyone in our community knew about octograbbers. Someone might ask, "Where's the dump truck?" and someone would answer, "Over there by the octograbbers." This would have communicated nothing to an outsider, but within our community, everyone, child or adult, understood instantly. A parent would ask their child at the end of the day, "What did you do today?" And the answer, "Octograbbers" made perfect sense. 

Scientists who study animal behavior in the wild, ethologists, generally define play as behavior that is purposeless (nonfunctional), voluntary, obviously unlike the animals' typical behavior, involves movements that are repeated with modifications and variations, and that is undertaken by animals that are well-fed, safe, and healthy. I might quibble with this definition, for instance, I would add that play is always open-ended, but for most purposes it's workable. And the game of Octograbbers fits this definition in all its particulars.

We've taken it upon ourselves to point to learning that takes place as children play, even going so far as to assert that learning is the purpose of play. And these children were certainly learning, or at least practicing, skills that would serve them in the future, most notably cooperation and teamwork. By self-handicapping -- replacing their arms and hands with shovels -- they were forced to consider the physical properties of the world from another perspective. And, of course, given that we didn't have enough shovels for everyone to play the game at any given moment, there were likely lessons in supply-and-demand economics to be found in the game. But the game itself had nothing to do with learning. It was just play. And while the game itself did not emerge from Darwinian evolution, the urge to play most certainly did.

Many believe that one of the most human activities of all, making music, is the product of play. There was no obvious purpose for early humans to begin singing or tapping out rhythms. It was most certainly voluntary, it was behavior unlike the usual functional behaviors like hunting and hiding, and, of course, being music, variation and modification is essential. And, naturally, no one makes music when they are sick, hungry, or under threat. It was not inevitable that humans would make music. In the beginning it was, like octograbbers, a cultural phenomenon that spreads from person to person, and continues to spread from generation to generation. 

Unlike octograbbers, music has obvious adaptive advantages. It clearly facilitates the bond between caregivers and infants. It unifies us as members of cultures, clubs, and religions. It enhances our sexual attractiveness. All of which promotes the survival of the species. But it is not behavior that would logically emerge from the imperatives of survival, although, in the same way that octograbbers most certainly spurred learning, our invention of music has enabled, over eons, the proper neural circuitry needed to make and process music. 

The children playing the game of octograbbers, like those humans who first made music, were doing it simply because it was fun or pleasurable. The learning and the unifying, however valuable, is a side-effect of our urge to play.

"Organic evolution" is the term scientists use to describe this phenomenon. There is regular Darwinian evolution, in which our biology causes us to do things like breath, eat, procreate, fight, fly, fawn and freeze. And then there is organic evolution which is how we effectively direct our own evolution through play.

The game of octograbbers disappeared at the end of the school year. I imagine some of the more avid players sought to recreate it in new settings, and maybe the game is still bubbling away somewhere under the surface of society, but it's unlikely that it will be as universally impactful as the playful invention of music. Still, the two are of a type -- music and octograbbers.

Critics of play almost always base their arguments on the premise that it is purposeless or nonfunctional. "It's a waste of time," they insist, but that's exactly the point.

"Natural selection," writes science journalist David Toomey in his new book Kingdom of Play, "possesses a number of specific and well-defined characteristics. It is, for instance, purposeless. It has no intention, and no objective, and as Darwin averred, it "includes no necessary and universal law of advancement or development." It is provisional. The evolution of any organism is a response to whatever conditions are present at a given place and moment. It is open-ended. The evolution of an organism has no moment of arrival and no end point -- a fact highlighted in the final paragraph of On the Origin of Species, a slow building crescendo whose final note hangs in the air and never quite resolves: the forms of life, in concludes, are even now "being evolved." In all these ways, natural selection is like play . . . (I)f you could distill the process of natural selection into a single behavior, that behavior would be play. Alternatively, if you were to choose an evolutionary theory or view of nature for which play might seem to be a model, it would be natural selection . . . Life itself, in the most fundamental sense, is playful."

******

Hi, I'm Teacher Tom and this is my podcast! If you're an early childhood educator, parent of preschoolers, or otherwise have young children in your life, I think you'll find my conversations with early childhood experts and thought-leaders useful, inspiring, and eye-opening. You might even come away transformed by the ideas and perspectives we share. Please give us a listen. You can find Teacher Tom's Podcast on the Mirasee FM Podcast Network or anywhere you download your podcasts.

I put a lot of time and effort into this blog. If you'd like to support me please consider a small contribution to the cause. Thank you!